>8?; 




Class. Ei^_6 
Book 'VV^S^ 

187/ 



OK^j^Tionsr. 



Our Republic-Political Integrity, Its Sheet Anchor. 



Delivered July 4thj 1S71, at West Point, Nebraska, by 



PUBLISIIED BY THE COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen ; 

Those great principles luJnch lie at the foundation of human Govern- 
ments, and which consequently have much to do with the happiness 
of Manhlnd, and the p)rospcrity of Nations, are too important to the 
pieople — too dear to patriotic hearts to he rarely discussed : 

Ninety-five years ago this day there was assembled in old Liberty Hall, 
in the city of Brotherly Love, a body of patriots who had beea chosen by 
the people of the American Colonies, as the wisest and best mea in the 
land. 

These men were especially charged by their constituents to enquire into 
and true presentment make, concerning the various complaints and alleged 
grievances which for long years had come up from the people of these Col- 
onies against England, the Mother Country. 

The communities whom these delegates represented were weak in physi-- 
cal numbers — weak in the power which gold confers — weak in influence 
with other nations — in fact, weak in every material which a people need 
when about to open a contest for their rights against a powerful foe; ex^. 
cept that they possessed one simple weapon — confidence that their cause 
was just. Sustained by this unfaltering trust — with all the assurance that 
David, otherwise unarmed, with his smooth pebble and leathern sling, went 
out to meet Goliath, of Gath, clad in iron armor and equipped with sword 
and shield — these colonist.'? came up to meet their oppressors. 

The details of the wrongs they complained of are too familiar to ever y 
reader of history to require detail here. They were most skilfully and 
wonderfully summed up and presented in the Indictment found by the 
grave council which had been duly summoned by the colonists to enquire 
into and present the same; and we have just heard them enumerated. — 
They are contained in the Declaration of Independence, which on the 4th 
day of July, 1776, was so deliberately and solemnly signed and published 
to the world by the assembled Wisdom, Goodness, Justice and Truth, of 
those pioneers of American Liberty, as then represented at Phila- 
delphia* 

The conclusipn to which these men came, to formally issue that Declara- 
tion, was the result of careful deliberation, after full and free consultation 
with the people interested therein, and after a thorough canvass of the 
trials and difficulties that must be overcome ; the battles to be fought, the 



victories to be won, ere llie flag of the new Union sliould wave, battle- 
scarrod and triumphant, ovev^pteople fVcod from ibreip;n oppression — over 
a people whose cause was I'ounded upon the fact — upon the f^^reat princi- 
ple — that Self-Govcrnmcnt is the only true, proper and just one for 
mankind. 

They were as well aware as men could be that the Declaration they were 
making would result in a severe test of this'principle, and consequently in 
a virtual settlement of the question whether men, as nations, are capable of 
governing themselves. 

They had before them, njzainst the proposition of relf- government, al- 
most the entire current of history — Sacred and Profane — for up to that 
time the tide of public opinion had been strongly, yes, fearfully, against 
this proposition, as the true one on whicli to base national existence. 

What, then, induced this noble band of brothers, led by the immor- 
tal Jefferson, to declare that " all men are created equal V From 
whence came this proposition, and from what spirit did it emanate? Not 
alone from a sense of the wrongs which the colonists had suffered at the 
hands of the Mother Country—- it came rather from the promptings of 
that innate sentiment which teaches that neither blood, nor ancestry, nor 
place, nor power, nor titled names, nor the tinsel show of aristocracy, nor 
anything else, save alone acting up to the full conviction of that principle 
which enables a struggling people to say in truth " onr cause is Just" — ^just 
before God and before man — will lead a people to those ultimate triumphs 
and that permanent peace which exalteth a nation. 

It is often said concerning " orations " delivered upon the 4tli of July, 
and the subjects upon which speakers on this occasion are accustomed to 
dwell, that the theme is " old," " hackneyed," " worn out," " stale and 
unprofitable." Is this so, and if so, should it be so ? Is not the memory 
of those devoted patriots, who for us, as well as for themselves, pledged 
•' their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor," to the establishment 
and support of an American Republic, as fresh, as green, to-day as it was 
twenty, forty, sixty, or even eighty years ago ? If not, should it not be ? 

On the other hand, should not the fact that the principle of self-gov- 
ernment has been tested by a three-fold process, and each time as by fire, 
tend to render any reference to the birth, youth and manhood of our coun- 
try always interesting and welcome to the car of every true patriot ? 

Can we not say in truth that the three fold cord which now binds toi 
gether, in indissoluble tics, the States of this Republic, was wrought, — 
First, from the lusty sinews of Americans, native and adopted, who shed 
their blood in achieving our independence in 177G. — Second, from the 
nerve of those who died in saving the same in the war of 1812, and — Third, 
from the fearless muscle and brawny arms of the brave boys in blue who 
immortalized themselves in maintaining it by the terrible civil war of 1861 
— the trials of which are still so fresh in our memories ? Does the Old 
World, or any portion of the New, desire any further test, any stronger 
evidence, that national existence can be maintained on the principle of self 
government? Let them but say so, and it shall be given, again and again 
— given until the long tried patience of American Republicans shall be 
exhausted, and they shall cast to the four winds of heaven the principle 
of non-intervention,- and lead forth in the Old World, as in the New, the 
conquering hosts that shall come from the North, the South, the Kast and 
the West, at the call of a liberty-loving, God»fearing people. # 

But, asks the skeptic, if liepublicanism is to bo a success in America, if 
Democracy be the true principle of government, why does it not succeed 
elsewhere? Why does Mexico, upon the same continent, and France, and 
Hungary, and Germany, and Ireland, on the eastern, try, and try, again and 



again, to secure this great boon, and yet so signally fail ? I answer, First, 
the people of these countries are not united in desiring the establishment 
of a Republican form of government, as well as the colonists were. 

In the second place, mere Man worship, Hero worship, worship of the 
success of arms as such, regardless of the objects for which they have been 
made successful, has infatuated the masses. 

The last, and by far the most important reason, is the simple, well-known 
fact, that the common people are uneducated there, in the great, in the 
true principles of Human liberty. These are neither taught them by 
practice nor by precept. In fact, the education of the lower classes is, un- 
fortunately, sadly neglected in most monarchical countries. Wherever 
among them, as in Germany, France and Hungary, we find the people edu- 
cated to any considerable extent, there wc also find, every now and then, 
outcroppings of the evidences that self-government is the principle which 
presents itself as the true one, to the enlightened mind. This is seen in 
those irregular spasmodic efforts to obtain Liberty there, which thus far, 
most unfortunately, hav( failed. 

No American, no true patriot, can but hope, fervently hope, that ere 
long, like the volcano that has slumbered, it may be for centuries, almost 
unheeded, the spirit of Freedom, in those countries, will yet again burst 
forth afresh, and pour its irresistablc torrent, its liquid la\ a of free thoguht 
free speech and Iree action, cemented by the livid flames of heroism, tris 
umphantly over the dry bones of decaying monarchies, until they shall be 
buried forever from the sight of man, no more to disturb the day-dreams 
of those libertysloving men and women who have hitherto struggled in vain 
for their natural rights, in vain to escape that rule ^\hosc only merit lies in 
its boasted antiquity. 

It was indeed most fortunate for this country, for America, that her 
struggles for Independence were put forth before monarchical principles 
had become popular with the masses. In the youthful weakness of the 
colonies lay their great moral strength. 

We who live remote, nearly a century from their day, arc liable to be- 
come unmindful of the privations, of the toils and hardships of the men, 
women and children of the Revolution. When they determined to have 
Liberty or have Death, they did so with a deliberation that should after- 
wards know no hesitancy, no delay, no such word as " fail." They seemed 
to catch glimpses of the future of this land, should it become a Republic, 
and they saw also what the result would be should theirs' prove to be a lost 
cause. 

On the one hand, fifty millions of free men, free women and free children, 
would rise up in less than a century to call them blessed; on the other the 
last hope of Liberty, that true Liberty, whoso foundation is laid in the 
simple propositionof self-government would be lost — to all human foresight, 
forever lost. • 

Had the Mojjier Country but succeeded then in establishing a junior 
monarchy here, where, I ask, was"thc land Which would have been left 
wherein to plant the tree. Independence, with a hope, a reasonable hope, 
its attaining maturity for centuries, if ever. 

Resting under the ever grateful shade of this tree, this true Banyan of 
liberty, which, planted by our forefathers, the men of the Revolution, in a 
soil indigeonus to its growth, enriched jjy their best blood, bedewed with 
the tears of their widows and orphans, and upon the green leaves and ma- 
tured branches of which has been sprinkled the priceless blood of their 
sons in these latter days, we arc liable, in the pride of our National Peace, 
Wealth and increasing Griory, to forget that there is yet danger that the 
blessings which we to-day recount, may be lost — no, I will not say hst-^ 



but, sacrificed, offered up to tliat inordinate love of pereonal distinction 
that self-ambition, that thirst f^|^laccand power, which would pervert the 
bfest principles of man's nature to attain its selfish ends. 

Washington cautioned the early settlers of this country, in his fare- 
well address, that they should cause the people to be educated, in order 
that they might thereby be enabled the better to understand the true prin- 
ciples of the Government, and so be prepared to maintain them. 

No one can doubt that this caution was needed, and that the diffutiion of 
knowledge among the masses, in schools, the general circulation of politi- 
cal information among them, through newspapers, and the many other 
channels through which intelligence of this kind finds its way into the 
homes and hearts of our people, has done much, very much, to aid in per- 
petuating the Ilepublic. 

At this day, however, it requires no more th;in ordinary observation to 
discover that the greater danger that our Government will not ultimately 
survive, does not so much lie in the want of intelligence among the people 
as in the tendency among politicians to obtain place and power, I'ur self- 
aggrandizement or pecuniary profit. So strong has this tendency become in 
these latter days that the people now seldom succeed in the elevation of 
one of their number to place, to office, upon the good old rule of capabilifi/^ 
honesty an d /a ithfuln ess 

While a majority of the voters constantly desire to do this, they as con- 
stantly find themselves baffled by politicians, whose aim is to elevate those 
and only those, through whose influence they can secure either political 
power for themselves or public plunder for their friends. 

We boast, it is true, of the peculiar priviliges of the ballot box, and arc 
wont to flatter ourselves, when we deposit those little slips of paper 

" Which come down as still 

As snow flakes fall upon the soil, 
But execute a freeman's will, 

As lightning does the will of God.'" 

That we arc giving to the world a practical illustration of the principles of 
self-government, of the right of suffrage, when, alas, how often — if the 
price of each vote, or the real motive with which it was cast, including 
what this, that or the other political trickster had said or done to influence 
the casting of that vote, were written legibly upon its back, so that it could 
be read of all men — what blushes of shame and confusion would redden 
the face of him who had dared to buy it with a price — a price either ab- 
solutely of money, or what is no less wrong, the promise to the ear, to be 
broken to the heart, of some political favor. 

So long as men who make polities a profession and a trade — a trade in 
fact in more than one sense — are permitted by the voters, by the would-be 
honest masses of the people, to buy and sell and traffic in votes, to make the 
right of suffrage, that priceless palkdiuni of our liberties — in thought, in 
action, in all political matters, a mere stock broker's capital, to be hawked 
about by them and their tricky co-worker.? — the political bulls and bears of 
bar-rooms and saloons, and other places of public and private resort, so 
long will the spirit that animated the signers of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence be but a bye word and a reproach to our Nation. 

The hopes of the rulers of the Old World, that America will yet prove 
recreant to the high trust reposed in her by those who drafted the Mayna 
Charta of her liberties, receives encouragement every time that political 
stock jobbers carry an election in the United States. This political jug- 
glery is not confined to any locality, to any particular city, county or State. 
Throughout the length and breadth of the land, offices from the highest to 
the lowest arc virtually disposed of, as it were, at public vendue. 



The mere politician is so infatuated with the love of office that he is al- 
ways on hand, like the principal actor in a circus, to perform all sorts of 
hio'h and lofty and ground tumbling — to turn all sorts of somersaults, 
backward, forward, or both at once, if desired. His political principles 
hangloosly about him. To-day he belon^i^rs to one party, to-morrow to an- 
other, and the next day to a third, desiring only to trim his sails to 
the popular breeze. 

While the honor of holding any political position should be the princi- 
pal reason for securing it, and not the love of monetary gain, it is well 
known that a large proportion of the office seekers of the present day spend 
more money in obtaining a nomination, or an election, than the entire pay 
of the office, when secured, amounts to. The natural result is that the 
power conferred by the office must be used to cause, in some way, a return 
of the expended capital. Ilcnce the speculations and peculations in the va- 
rious departments of the government; the selling of contracts, the dispo- 
sal for a stipulated price, of the various emoluments over which the officer 
has control, until, when the balance is struck, it is discovered but too 
late, that the Government, National as well as State, is swindled of thous- 
ands and tens of thousands of the peoples' money — money that the tax- 
payer has deposited from his hard earnings to help to defray only honest 
expenditures. 

It requires no prophetic gift to predict, no remarkable vision to see, that 
all this tends to weaken the llepublic, to undermine its foundation stones, 
and to destroy the confidence of the true patriot in its ultimate success. 

It is true, then, that this nation has receded from the principles of its 
early fathers, who required " honesty, ability and fidelity" in all those upon 
whom were to be conferred the emoluments of political offices And not 
only this; it has ceased, almost ceased, to elevate to the higher offices in its 
gift those men who are best known for intellectual capacity, for wisdom, 
for enlarged views of statesmanship, in a word, men of brains. The sec- 
ond and third rate politicians — and those two classes comprise by far the 
larger part, are jealous of intellect, but more especially jealous of that un- 
flinching honesty of purpose which would rule out those who seek office 
for its emoluments, rather than its honors. 

Why, let me ask, if this be not true, liave the great men of this Nation, 
as a class, men who were conceived in Patriotism and brought forth in 
Liberty, been defeated as they have from time to time appeared before the 
people as candic'ates for the highest offices in their gift? Most certainly, 
not because the people, as such, did not desire them to rule over them, did 
not admire, almost worship them, as wise men and judicious statesmen, but 
rather because political jugglers and brokers, the lobbyists, the hangers on at 
political conventions, fear great and good men. 

Will any sane man presume to assert that the political corruptions of 
later years, corruptions which threaten ere long to subvert, if not to over- 
throw the foundations of our Republic, and to make the Revolution which 
wc this day celebrate a mere " Rebellion,'' would have existed as they now 
exist in high places as well as lov/, had the selection of the best men for 
high political promotion been the guiding rule for the last fifty years. 

Why, I ask, were Clay, CALnoUi\, Cass, Webster, Benton, and 
other men of their stamp thrust aside for lesser lights, and sent to their 
graves under a sense of the ingratitude of Republics? Is not their history 
a lesson for men of this day to ponder ? Well may wc say with the Poet 
who sang of the men of ancient days : 

'• Where are the heroes of ages past — 

I'he mighty ones who flourished in the infancy of days'.' 
All to the grave gone down, 

And on their fallen greatness sits grim Forgetfulncss." 



6 

Would it were not so. It wcie much pleasanter to think 
'• The great man n^ln- falls ; 

He lives, he fowera aloft, he stands sublime. 
They full who give him not 

The honoi' here that suits liis future fnme, 
Tliey die and arc forgot." 

The great and good of earth share alike the envy and hatred of thoso 
who possesri neither their talents nor their probity. Few, indeed are there 
whom the honest niasse.s would delight to honor that scheming politicians 
do not contrive, by some ill device, to keep from attaining place and power. 
So true is this that offices of all grades are in truth and in fact by 

'• Ways that arc dark, and tricks that are vain,' 
c^old to the highest bidder, with as little thought of the danger which lies 
therein to the great principles upon which our government is based as the 
licensed auctioneer knocks down his second-hand wares on our street 
corners. It has, indeed, been well said 

" Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty," 

The American Union has, and always has had its foes, abroad as well as 
at home, but neither can succeed. The attacks made upon her strong- 
holds — her bulwarks — have been most vigorous. Foreign nations, jealous 
of her rising power, have sought to crush her by that terrible weapon, pub- 
lic opinion, as well as by that more material assistance, '' aid and comfort," 
granted to her enemies in time of civil war. But to no avail. 

At home, the combined and powerful efforts to dissever the Union, 
uirde so perseveringly by a large minority of the States — sustained by the 
undaunted heroism of an army led by brave and gallant officers — after four 
years of terrible and almost incessant domestic war, and the loss of thous- 
ands of precious lives, most signally failed. Not a pillar of the old temple 
of Liberty was started from its foundation — not a star of that bright gal- 
axy which lights up its gilded dome was dimmed — not a stone shaken in 
its walls — in all her pristine glory, upon that foundation so deeply laid by 
our ancestors, there she stands — firm as the everlasting hills — a model 
Union — a model Republic — a beacon light to guide to a haven of rest the 
toiling millions of the Old World, who would escape the shoals of Mon- 
archy or the rocks of Empire — to her let them look — to us let them come. 
Here we offer an asylum of refuge to the oppressed of every nation, kin- 
dred and tongue, and invite them to enjoy with us the blessings of a Free 
Government. We welcome them to our aid in the speedy development of 
all those material interests which go to make up and constitute a united 
people — a happy and prosperous nation. Especially to the free soil of this 
far western land do wc invite them, and bid them welcome, thrice welcome. 
Welcome to hftppy homes in this sweet vale of beauty which wc to-day 
behold — this fertile valley where the sotting sun wistfully lingers to cast a 
fond parting glance at the loveliest landscape which adorns his diurnal 
course, ere he robes his vision with the veil of night, and quickly disap- 
pears, as if to hide his grief at parting. 

From the foreign population which land.s upon our shores, much is to be 
hoped favorable to the stability of the Republic — much IVom the fact that 
scarcely the first generation passes ere that, by intermarriage and social 
union, by the adoption of a common language, by assuming the habits of 
those to the manor born, by a willingness to support the government of their 
adopted country and a desire to steer clear of the ills they left behind — it 
becomes eesentially American. Having once escaped the hand of I^lon- 
archy, these people love liberty quite too well to give it up without a strug- 
gle, and as soldiers they have no superiors. 



Experience — dear blood-bougtt experience, has demonstrated the fact 
that in the Old World, in all probability, generations must pass away ere 
the blessings of a Republican form of government can be attained by any 
one of the nations there. So long has the spirit of monarchy ruled them 
that the people, from habit, are averse to progress, and slow to perceive, 
and still slower to adopt the sentiments upon which Republics are founded. 

It is not for us of this Western World, this favored land, to say, much 
less to boast, that our freedom could have been attained had not this people 
been young, as a Nation, and restive under the restraint, not to say op- 
pressions, of the Governments in the old country before they came here. — 
It was this that led them to sacrifice the ties of kindred, and brave the 
dangers of the deep, that they might find a now land, where they could 
worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, with none 
to molest or make them afraid, where they could live under rules and reg- 
ulations of their own making. 

Now and then historians of our mother country have dared to say — it 
may be thoughtlessly said — that America, so far as the white population is 
concerned, . was originally peopled with " convicts, felons, and rebels." In 
the early part of the Revolution these writei's delighted in taunting the 
colonists with charges that they were seceders, outcasts, runaways and dis- 
senters. They compared them to the people of New South Wales and 
Botany Ray, which were settled by felons whose sentences had been com^ 
muted to transportation for life. 

This class of English writers do not seem to have comprehended the dif- 
ference between resistance to edicts and laws, as a religious conviction, a 
moral sentiment, and that resistance which is everywhere recognized by 
civilized nations as a crime. They never so much as dreamed that 

" Besistance to tyrants is obedience to God.', 

Thankful should we be that it was men who did dream this, and whose 
dreams became a living reality; who were, in the course of human events, 
to follow first, the westward course of Empire, and come to this land, here 
to establish, defend and maintain principles founded upon that sentiment . 

First among these was Raleigh, chivalrous, true and brave, who unfort- 
unately had the honor of a man, and would not let tyranny stalk abroad un- 
rebuked. Hence the pride of Old Virginia and the patriotism of her sons 
in the early days of the Republic. Then came Carver, and Brewster, and 
Bradford, and their comrades, and Miles Standish, pilgrims who knew their 
rights, civil and religious, and dared to defend them. From men like 
these have descended the hardy, toiling sons of New England, worthy sons 
of worthy sires. 

Our mother country, not content with driving men from her shores for 
naught save their peculiar religious opinions, issued next the edict that 
peopled Maryland with Catholics and Pennsylvania with Quakers. Nor 
was it long before the American plantations were recruited by the Germans 
convicted of inhabiting the Palatinate, when the merciless armies of Louis 
XIV, were turned into that devoted region, and by the Hugenots convict- 
ed of holding what they deemed the simple truths of Christianity, when it 
pleased the mistress of Louis XIV to be so very zealous for her particular 
faith. Then came the Highlanders, convicted of the fearful crime, under 
a monarchial Government, of loyalty to their hereditary Prince on the 
plains of Culloden, and the Irish convicted of supporting the rights of 
their country against what they deemed an oppressive power. 

These, and such as these, were the " convicts" who, in early times settled 
the country then known as the New World, and now called the United 
States of America. Every American ought to be proud of such ancestry 



8 

— proud that the test whether a Kepublic could be maintained as a "-ov" 
eminent, a permanent governn^R, fell into the hands of such " convicts" 
to try. How triumphant the great principles of self-government, of true 
Democracy, have come forth from that test, the present prosperous con- 
dition of this Union as a government and as a people, fully illustrates. 

If the "spirits of just men made perfect" ever do look down upon 
things below, with what satisfaction do those early "convicts-" behold to- 
day the elevated position of this country, and witness its onward and up- 
ward course toward the zenith of fame and power, with the soul-stirrin"- 
motto "Excelsior" still inscribed upon her glorious banner. 

With a new people and a new country — a country upon which the Ty 
rant's hand had never been laid, without resistance — well might our Revo- 
lutionary sires feel confident that the battles which they were about to fight 
on the field, as well as in the forum, were not to be fought in vain. 

Situated as we are in this day of great things — great successess —and 
great surroundings, we arc liable to forget the difference between then and 
now. Then there were but thirteen States — Colonies rather — now there 
are thirty>-3even States. Then all told there were but three millions of peo■^ 
pie on the American shores — now we have full forty millions. Then this 
country north of Massachusetts, west of New York and Pennsylvania and 
south of the Carollnas was a vast wilderness, whose solitude was only broken 
by the whoop of the Indian, the growl of wild beasts and the roar of the 
cataract. Now the " frontier" that word, the actual fact of centuries — no 
longer exists — save in the memory of the hardy pioneer — and from " ro.<;y 
morn to dewy eve," the busy hum of Industry makes cheerful music amid 
the varied occupations of a free and happy people from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific and from Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Panama. Then, here and 
there a hamlet and a few small cities on the sea board contained the sparse 
population, and the centre of Empire was on the Hudson — now our land i.-i 
sown broad cast with villages and cities, counting their numbers from hun- 
dreds to millions, and the centre of Empire is on the Missouri. Then our 
commerce consisted of a few old hulks whose sails flapped lazily in the 
breeze as they chafed their shaky ribs against rough hewn piers. Now the 
masts of a single sea board may fitly be li!:ened to a forest of leafless pines, 
and the snowy sails of our commerce whiten every sea — every ocean — every 
harbor on the Globe — while the glorious old flag, with its stripes and its 
stars — ever the same as when first unfurled in the llevolution — streaming 
from every mast head — is a constant monitor to the people of every land — 
the mariner on every sea — that wherever it floats it represents a power not 
second to that of any nation on God's green earth. 

In all our boasted pride over the success of arms — in the period of which 
we speak — let us never forget that not alone to those who peopled this land 
at that day — not alone to Americans is the credit due for that eminent suc>- 
cess. From over the sea patriotic men — men whose names shall live so long 
as history is read or tradition repeated — came up to the help of the weak 
against the mighty. There was LaFayette, Baron deKalb, Pui-ASKT, 
Kosciusko and others no less praiseworthy and brave, whose stout hearts 
and willing hands were joined with those of Wastitncton', Warren, G rekv, 
Stark and Knox and those other brave patriots who led the armies of the 
colonists to battle at Bunker Hill, Concord, Lexington and Brandywine. These 
men believed the principles inculcated in the Declaration of Independence to 
be something more than a mere ennunciation — " a string of glittering 
generalities." They had faith in the wisdom of the men tvho signed that docu- 
ment — faith in such men as Adams, and Lee, and Sherman, and Jeffer- 
son, and Franklin, and Rutledoe, and Hancock, and why should they 



not have such faith, while everywhere throughout the colonies were foum! 
men of equal valor, patriotism and bravery. 

How fresh in the memory, are the words of Patrick Henry then thr 
youngest member of the House of Burgesses of Virginia — as he pcurei] 
forth his fervent, persuasive eloquence. In the heat of debate he boldly 
asserted that the King had acted the tyrant, and then alluding to the fate 
of other tyrants he exclaimed — "Caesar had his Brutus — Charles the Fir^t 
his Cromwell, and George the Third," then pausing while the cry of — 
"treason" — "treason"— • raug through the hall — he coolly added — "may 
profit by their example." "If this be treason make the most of it." 

And we of this day — we of this Western World — we of Nebraska arc 
reaping the golden harvest of "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity" of Union. 
Peace and Prosperity, the natural products of seed thus sown, and yet but 
once a year, do we spend an hour rehearsing the story of " the times that 
tried men's souls." 

>fter all upon you my countrymen — yes upon you of West Point, this 
beautiful young city, set like a bright gem in the coronet of Beauty — upon 
me, upon every man, woman and child in this Republic, depends the final 
solution of the great question, which the people of the old world do not un- 
derstand, cannot solve, though they have tried again and again — and that is, 
whether, when years shall have come and gone, when centuries .shall have 
rolled on and on, the world shall then witness what we of to'^day see — in all 
the noontide of its glory, a Kepublican form of Government based upon the 
simple principle contained in the Declaration that "all men are created free 
and equal and aie endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, 
among which are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." 

The lessons of the hour to us who have chosen our lot with the youngest 
sister of the American Union, are full of hope. Our people are patriotic, 
industrious and thriving; our valleys are richly laden with abundant crops 
to make glad the toil of the harvester; our prairies teem with herds and 
flocks and our vacant lands are fast filling up with a population which has 
well chosen its future home. 

Soon, how soon, no one now even dreams, the flowing tide of emigration 
which has so long rolled its waves westward, will ebb, and from the shores 
of the Western Sea will set towards the Eastern. Then the valley of the 
Missouri, the true father of waters, will have become the commercial centre, 
if not the seat of our Government, and our broad acres will be valued in 
numbers that now seem fabulous. Then our tens of thousands will have 
become millions and Nebraska will take the place to which the improvement 
of her natural resources will entitle her, second to none in that Grand Roll 
of United States, which will ere long have doubled its present number. 

Amid all this prosperity — present and future — we will not forget to pay 
the debt of gratitude we owe to those devoted men, those brave soldiers, 
who from time to time, in the various wars upon American soil have ofi"ered 
up their lives, a willing sacrafice upon the altar of Liberty, nor to guard the 
priceless inheritance they bequeathed to us — the right* of Self Government. 
Proud of our Countiy — proud of our Nation — 
Proud of our Hearths, our Homes and our Friends — 
Proud of Ancestors and their Declaration — 
Proud of the rights our Liberty lends — 
As we joyously sail o'er life's bright waters, 
On the old ship " Union," with streamers so gay, 
The tale we will tell to our sons and our daughters, 
Of the battles they fought in our forefather's day — 
Of American Empire — we'll rehearse the story 
Of it.? course and its progress from its earliest date, 
And eagerly watch, till covered with glory, 
Our Republic shall tbiumph, peerless and great. 



I 



